Pennsylvania G.O.P. refuses to seat Democratic
lawmaker in State Legislature.
Jan. 5,
2021, 4:01 p.m. ET2 hours ago
2 hours ago
By Trip
Gabriel
Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania in 2019. “This
was a corruption of the fundamental democratic franchise in our state,” he said
on Tuesday, after he was escorted out of the Legislature.
The effort
by congressional Republicans to deny the presidential results found an echo in
the Pennsylvania legislature on Tuesday, when Republicans voted not to seat a
Democratic lawmaker who was elected in November and to remove the lieutenant
governor, also a Democrat, as the presiding officer of the State Senate.
On a
typically ceremonial day of swearing in members, Pennsylvania’s Senate majority
refused to seat Senator Jim Brewster, whose narrow victory was officially
certified but is being challenged in court.
In a
contentious, chaotic session, Republicans also voted to remove Lt. Gov. John
Fetterman as the Senate president and to replace him with the top Republican in
the chamber.
The
lieutenant governor refused at first to leave the rostrum, and for several
minutes both he and the Republican voted into his place tried to recognize
motions from the floor. Eventually, Mr. Fetterman stepped away.
“I was
escorted out,” Mr. Fetterman said in an interview minutes later. “This was a
corruption of the fundamental democratic franchise in our state.” He said Mr.
Brewster’s win in November was certified by the secretary of the commonwealth
and compared the state Republicans’ actions to President Trump’s efforts to
subvert the outcome of his race.
Mr.
Brewster, who has represented a region outside Pittsburgh for a decade,
defeated Nicole Ziccarelli, a Republican, by 69 votes. She is challenging the
results in federal court. At issue are several hundred mail ballots that did
not have a handwritten date on their outer envelopes. Ms. Ziccarelli lost a
challenge in state court.
Jake
Corman, the president pro tem of the State Senate and a Republican, told
reporters on Monday that his party believed it had to wait for the outcome of
the legal challenge before filling the seat. “Our goal is to get it right, not
get it fast,” he said.
But
Democrats characterized it as a naked power grab. “This idea of having one
party decide who is the real victor is a dangerous precedent we’re seeing
played out on the national stage,” Mr. Fetterman said.
Jennifer
Kocher, a spokeswoman for the Senate Republicans, accused Democrats of creating
chaos. “Today, the order and decorum of the Senate were hijacked by Lt. Gov.
John Fetterman and members of the Senate Democrat caucus, who failed to adhere
to Senate rules,” she said.
Trip
Gabriel is a national correspondent. He covered the past two presidential
campaigns and has served as the Mid-Atlantic bureau chief and a national
education reporter. He formerly edited the Styles sections. He joined The Times
in 1994. @tripgabriel • Facebook
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